millifarad

Millifarad (symbol mF) is a unit of capacitance in the International System of Units. It equals one thousandth of a farad; since a farad stores one coulomb of charge per volt, a millifarad stores 0.001 coulombs per volt. Therefore, 1 mF = 0.001 F and 1 mF equals 1000 µF.

Millifarads are relatively uncommon in modern electronics. Most capacitors are specified in microfarads (µF) or nanofarads (nF), because these scales better match typical circuit needs. In numerical terms, 1 mF is equivalent to 1000 µF, and some applications such as certain power-supply filters or energy-storage sections may use capacitor values in the millifarad range, though such cases are often described using µF values instead.

Capacitance values are influenced by temperature, applied voltage, and frequency, and capacitors have voltage ratings and tolerances. In practice, measuring a capacitor's value is done with LCR meters or impedance analyzers at a specified frequency. The term millifarad is sometimes encountered in older schematics or in contexts where large capacitance is involved, but modern design tends to prefer the µF unit for clarity.

The unit is named after Michael Faraday.